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The Facts In April, the Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that would give authorities “more leeway to secretly hack into the suspected criminal’s computer,” so The Hacker News in a recent report. According to the draft minutes of the Criminal Rules Meeting, the subcommittee on Rule […]

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Here’s a heads-up to those who are interested in watching the straight-forward debate on what the Toronto Star labeled in today’s print edition “Big Brother – bad or good?” Scheduled for 7:00 p.m. EDT, Munk Debates, a Canadian charitable initiative, will set the stage for former director of the NSA, CIA, and Principal Deputy Director of […]

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Covering our previous posts on cyber proliferation and export controls (Wassenaar Agreement, Hacking Team, Exploit Sales, i.a.), this research paper provides a comprehensive political and technological analysis of current regimes in place in the United States, Great Britain, and in Germany, which relate to the export of surveillance technology. The report has been published in […]

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On March 20, 2014, the German Bundestag, the country’s federal parliament, formed a parliamentary investigative commission to probe the surveillance activities of the 5-eyes states, in particular of the National Security Agency (NSA) and the British Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ), that targeted and involved Germany. The inquiry panel has taken up work, as the German Attorney General has […]

Today, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) recounted the happenings around the Heartbleed Bug, a pervasively occurring vulnerability of the widespread OpenSSL cryptographic software that was revealed by Google and a Finnish security firm on Monday. Along with the public notification, the information website heartbleed.com was established, explaining that “[t]he Heartbleed bug allows anyone on the Internet […]

Following yesterday’s introduction and preparation on day 1 of the Cyber Dialogue 2014, the conference participants started day 2 in their assigned working groups, covering specific challenges to effective oversight mechanisms (group 1: “From Surveillance to Cyber War: What are the Limits and Impacts?”), or more general topics like viable governance models (group 5: “Power Shift? […]

Yesterday (March 30) and today (March 31), the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs of the University of Toronto convened the Cyber Dialogue 2014, the last of a series of 4 annual conferences on cyber security and governance. Informed by the motion “After Snowden, Whither Internet Freedom?“, the convention […]

The Issue Last week, London-based surveillance watchdog Privacy International raised awareness of governments’ and private spyware suppliers’ engagement in an unregulated market that supplies them with intelligence on security flaws of widely-used software. Such exclusive knowledge about generally unknown vulnerabilities is a crucial part of any cyber eavesdropping operation. It allows the operator to access […]

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Last week, Secrecy News reported on a secret execute order (EXORD) that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) issued to authorize and launch a military operation conducted by the Air Force (AF) in cyberspace. Further details of the classified EXORD of last June and on the operation remain undisclosed. It become known as a […]

In February, an experienced nuclear engineer concluded on the cyber security portal Infosec Island a non-neglectable risk of a potential cyber attack, which, under certain circumstances, could cause a core melt. Due to the contribution, the so-called “Aurora Vulnerability” lies in the alternative current (AC) motors that run the emergency core cooling system, and which can […]

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Professor William Snyder

Ryan D. White

Ryan is currently a third year law student at Syracuse University College of Law, and is also pursuing a Master of Public Administration degree from Syracuse’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Ryan spent time with Homeland Security Investigations while pursuing his undergraduate degree at Wesleyan University, and spent his first summer of law school as clerk for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of New York. He is a member of Syracuse Law Review, the Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis, and participates in the Veteran’s Legal Clinic.

Christopher W. Folk

is a 2017 graduate of SU College of Law. A non-traditional student, Christopher returned to academia after spending nearly twenty years in the high tech industry. Christopher served in the Marine Corps, graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. In Applied Economics and Business Management, attended Northeastern University’s High-Tech MBA Program and received a M.S. In Computer Information Systems. Christopher previously worked in Software Engineering. Christopher is currently serving his second term as Town Justice for the Town of Waterloo. Christopher externed with a Cybersecurity firm in the Washington, D.C. area between his first and second year at SU College of Law.

Anna Maria Castillo

is 2016 graduate of Syracuse College of Law. She also holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She has interned at a London-based think-tank that specializes in transnational terrorism and global security and at the legal department of a defense contractor. She served as an executive editor in the Syracuse Law Review.

Jennifer A. Camillo

is a 2015 graduate of Syracuse College of Law and is a prosecutor. She has served as a law clerk in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York and the Cayuga County District Attorney’s Office and as an extern in the Oneida County District Attorney’s Office. She was a member of the Syracuse National Trial Team and was awarded the Tiffany Cup by the New York Bar Association for her trial advocacy achievements.

Tara J. Pistorese

holds Juris Doctor and Masters of Public Administration degrees from Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and its College of Law. She wrote for this blog when a student. She is now a member of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps.

Benjamin Zaiser

is both a scholar and a Federal Agent of the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany. (Opinions expressed here are his own and not any part of official duty.)